(Bloomberg) -- Mali's junta handed over power to a retired officer as part of efforts to convince West African neighbors to lift sanctions imposed after last month's coup.
Bah N'Daw was sworn in Friday as the interim president of the West African nation that's seeking to restore democratic order after young army officers toppled President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. The junta's leader, Col. Assimi Goita, was named interim vice president responsible for defense, until the country holds elections.
“Mali is shaken, weakened, humiliated,” N'Daw, a retired officer who briefly served as Keita's defense minister from May 2014, said at his swearing-in ceremony in the capital, Bamako. “The country's now facing a very difficult time.”
The new leadership faces the uphill task of preparing elections within 18 months, the timeline imposed by the Economic Community of West African States. The 15-member bloc has taken a hard line against Mali since the putsch, shutting borders and halting financial flows.
The sanctions will remain until a civilian prime minister is named, its envoy and former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan said in Bamako Friday. The transition charter also needs to state that the vice president cannot take over from the president, he said.
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“We need better electoral processes, good practices and solid checks and balances to prevent vote rigging and election fraud,” N'Daw said.
Mali has been a linchpin of international efforts, involving France and the European Union, to defeat insurgents in the semi-arid Sahel. Islamists' deadly raids have spread from Mali to neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger, killing nearly 2,000 people in the first seven months of the year, the highest toll since the crisis began in 2012, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.
Government corruption has weakened the Malian army's response and allowed insurgents to wrest control of two-thirds of the country's territory, N'Daw said.
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